Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas. Allen is seen here with Bishop Derek Calhoun of New Vision International Ministries, where he serves as an Elder.

Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas.

Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas. Allen is seen here with Bishop Derek Calhoun of New Vision International Ministries, where he serves as an Elder.

Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas.

Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas.

Mark Henry Allen speaks during an interview in Bridgeport, Conn., July 3, 2014. Allen, a former employee for Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), who worked as an aide at Dunbar School, acknowledges that he has a criminal record, and is listed as a low level sex offender in Texas.

BRIDGEPORT -- A former Dunbar School aide who says he is wrongly listed on a Texas registry as a low-level sex offender nonetheless resigned Thursday from positions on both the city's Ethics Commission and South End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone.

"I care too much about the city and the great things that are happening to unjustly serve as a distraction," Mack Henry Allen Jr., 49, said Thursday, his wife, Kesha, and pastor, Bishop Derrick Calhoun, at his side.

Allen became caught up in a widening state and local probe into how his former employer, Family Urban Schools of Excellence, went about staffing Dunbar when his past felony drug convictions and the Texas registry listing were shared this week.

The disclosure came a full six months after a private investigator told FUSE about Allen's past.

The latest scandal comes after the exposure of FUSE Chief Executive Officer Michael Sharpe's past criminal convictions for forgery and embezzlement, and the revelation that he lied about having a doctoral degree. Sharpe resigned, as did two other top FUSE officials.

The snowballing scandal has left Connecticut and local officials bracing for more possible disclosures as a state investigation begins.

"It seems like basic administrative functions like background checks for people with direct involvement with children are not being conducted with the attention and focus that is absolutely necessary," said Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. "It should go without saying that conducting these checks are of paramount importance. We look forward to the findings of the investigation."

Investigator Frederick L. Dorsey has been asked by the state to closely examine who FUSE hired to work at Dunbar, how promptly background checks were conducted and shared with the district, and the company's spending and hiring practices. In addition to Dunbar, FUSE manages charter schools in Hartford and, until July 1, Milner School, a Hartford public school that, like Dunbar in Bridgeport, is part of the state's Commissioner's Network.

"There is reason to believe there may be others" at FUSE with problems in their past, one state Department of Education source said Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Conducting background checks was part of the memorandum of understanding between the Bridgeport school district and FUSE when the private charter school management company was allowed to begin running Dunbar last fall, in an effort to improve student achievement, attendance and behavior.

While the district hired and checked certified staff at the K-8 school, FUSE was to check backgrounds on at least 15 or more academic assistants hired to provide a second pair of hands in each classroom.

Allen, who lives in the school's neighborhood and is also an elder at the New Vision International church, said he was candid about his past gang involvement and felony drug activity when he filled out a FUSE job application last August.

But he did not list a guilty plea to "accessory to attempted rape" that he said a Los Angeles public defender convinced him to make when he was 13 -- partially because Allen said he did not commit the crime and partially because the conviction, for which he served time in juvenile detention, was sealed following his probation, he said.

According to Allen, he was riding his bike with a 14-year-old friend in East L.A., when the friend decided to proposition a local prostitute. Allen said he stayed on his bike. The friend, he said, followed the prostitute around the corner. A cop pulled up, and according to Allen, the prostitute cried rape. Both boys were taken into custody.

"They said I was a lookout," Allen said.

He was scared, he said, and didn't want to go to adult prison. He took the deal, but said he wishes now that he didn't.

"I never committed an act against anyone that is sexual in nature," Allen said.

California did not list Allen on a sex offender registry. Neither did Connecticut, when he moved here 12 years ago. Texas, where he lived and served jail time as a result of his gang and drug involvement -- nine years' worth, if put altogether -- put him on the registry and refused to remove it.

"When I got the (Dunbar) job, I was told there would be a background check," Allen said. "I had no problem with it. As far as I knew, all was disclosed."

He said he interviewed twice, once with Sharpe.

"Sharpe said there were things in my application they had to go over," said Allen. "I gave him all the information he needed."

Allen was hired and spent last fall working as a classroom assistant. When he returned after Christmas break, he said he met with Sharpe and Indra Sen, another FUSE staff member. "We had a candid conversation that it would be better for me to be outside," said Allen.

In his new role as a community outreach worker, he worked on a school beautification campaign, started a school newspaper and enlisted outside resources.

He said he is not sure who else at Dunbar knew about his past, but assumed everyone did. His contract at Dunbar expired in June and was not renewed.

Asked if he thought it was inappropriate for someone with his background to work in a school, Allen said he did his job to the best of his ability and "operated in a manner that was consistent with what they asked of me."

Others say someone with Allen's background should never be allowed to work in a school.

Rabinowitz said she did not learn about Allen's record until late Tuesday. So far, she has received no other background checks from FUSE and has decided the district will assume control of a summer school set to begin July 7.

Rabinowitz is also working on a probe of her own into how FUSE spent $435,000 in Commissioner's Network money and is preparing a recommendation about whether to sever ties with FUSE in time for a July 10 meeting of the city school board.

Mayor Bill Finch, who in March appointed Allen to serve on Bridgeport's Ethics Commission, knew about Allen's three drug convictions, but not about his sex offense registry, said Brett Broesder, a spokesman for Finch. The mayor, Broesder said, also did not know Allen worked anywhere other than New Vision International.

Broesder said background checks are done of all city appointees. The city's Office of Internal Affairs did not turn up anything on Allen in Connecticut, but Broesder said it was not allowed, under National Crime Information Center standards, to conduct a federal background check.

"The bottom line is that Mayor Finch has two kids who have graduated from Park City public schools. He also has two kids who currently attend Bridgeport public schools. He would never want kids to attending a school where a registered sex offender works," Broesder said.

"As it stands right now, I should not be on a sex offense registry," Allen said.

Since moving to Connecticut 10 years and five months ago, he said, his record has been clean. He has been off parole for two years. He and his wife have three children.

Calhoun, senior pastor of New Vision International Ministries, said he stands by Allen, whom he has known since 2002.

"The role of the church is about redemption," Calhoun said, pointing out that Allen's past was spelled out in detail in a church magazine article. "He has never been deceitful."

Allen rattled off a long list of church activities he is involved in, from bringing fans to South End residents without air conditioning to prison outreach program for children of incarcerated adults.

His wife, Kesha Allen, said the message being sent to children -- that if they make a mistake as a child, there is no chance of redemption -- is hurtful.

"We are talking 1977. That is ridiculous," she said.

Who better to deliver a message of what can happen if mistakes are made, she added, than someone who has made mistakes.